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WNTT 1250 Tazewell

O

ok walters

Guest
I was in the area recently and met the owner of this station. Neat place with record albums everywhere. Country music with church on Sunday and Swap Shop everyday. Owner said the most important thing everyday is the obituaries - leave them off and the phone will ring. Felt like I was back in 1973 for a little while.

Anyone know anything about this station? Older lady owns and runs it - super nice to me just like everyone else was during my entire visit.
 
I have known Mrs. Craft for over 10 years now and try to visit whenever I am in the area. As she had told me before the station is her toy and it keeps her busy. She turns 86 this year. I think she has a couple of Part time employees working at the station. I am hoping she goes after a translator for the station to help improve the nighttime coverage. The station has been on the air since the early 60's and Mrs. Craft purchased it in the mid 90's.
 
I suspect Mrs. Craft has brought WNTT back from the wasteland. It might have been about 1993 or maybe 1994 I was gathering rate cards for a project and I remember thinking 'buy the FM, not the AM'. I think WNTT was part of an AM/FM combo. Back then WNTT was syndicated talk and was offering 30s for $1 and 60s for $2 each. It made me think the ownership had given up on the AM and was just trying to keep the costs as low as possible and use the AM for a bonus or add on for clients they needed to persuade to buy the FM side.

At nearly 86, she has quite a job keeping an AM going in a small town but I suspect the community likes and listens to WNTT and maybe it turns a little cash. Mrs. Craft has my respect for doing what is right in radio and not running away from a challenge. I'd love to hear the station.
 
She is quite a person to talk to. Station sounds a little choppy as she runs a satellite fed country format. Definitely a throwback to days gone by.
 
Obits on the radio! There can't be too many stations still doing that as a regular feature. I remember a country station in east Arkansas reading obituaries every week in the late '70s -- one day the DJ decided to come out of them with the Statler Brothers' "I'll Go to My Grave (Loving You)," which I enjoyed. Not sure if the relatives and friends of the deceased did, though.
 
Obits are a big deal in some small towns still to this day. In fact, when I visited KPIN in Pinedale, Wyoming, obits was a top priority because the papers only appeared weekly and the radio station essentially replaced the bulletin board at the post office for more timely community announcements and funeral details. Best of all, stations charge to announce them just like the newspapers.
 
A lot of stations in East Tenn. still do obits. They are usually sponsored by local Funeral Homes. Like b-turner said small town newspapers with weekly distribution isn't enough so local radio fill the gaps. She doesn't do fancy production for her spots either, mostly read cold with nothing in the background. The production room is a computer with a microphone. I am impressed that at 86 she is computer savy and does all the programming and most of the production.
 
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